Southern Moderate African American Issues

Black Voters: Long Blinking

Rural Georgia Blacks have me “long blinking.” My homeboy Richardson will tell you stories about teaching and will long blink as a “pregnant pause” at a significant point. If it was really bad, his chin would drop onto his chest.

Urban Dictionary defines pregnant pause as the silence that occurs after someone has said or done something that leaves everyone who bore witness to the event speechless. “Deafening silence” is related to both long blinking and pregnant pause.

I don’t understand why we seek a better life through voting and public servants primarily–long blink. There are older Moderate Blacks who don’t trust a government-based improvements for our community because we remember local, state and federal sanctioned oppression and subjugation—pregnant pause. Are some Blacks waiting for Uncle Sam to rescue them from the “other man” or from themselves? Many people are their own worst enemies—played in school, slept in church, hung with no good people, ignored parents and didn’t develop a career. Deafening silence.

For years, this blog argued that there is more than one way to skin a cat. During that time, parts of our community kept searching for elected leaders who would give us more and more. On some level, that assistance seemed related to reparations but not really. The best we can hope for from government is a protection of basic rights and a climate conducive for personal development. What does that last sentence mean? America should be the land of equal and fair opportunity for everyone. If you are poor and struggling, it should be a result of your actions rather than gender, color or what have you.

The Progressive Movement is exciting to many young people but we Moderates want the movement leaders to explain how all of these benefits will be funded. Well-intended benefit programs can inadvertently create softer, entitled people.

Old school Blacks like me think another way to skin the cat would include personal responsibility. No, I am not talking about the cold-hearted “let them starve” mentality of the Far Right Conservatives. Shall we reconsider the striving mindset of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and every Black person who simply wanted a fair shot at a nice life from hard work?

That striving mindset is cheaper than governmental programs and produces less crime. It involves Secretary Colin Powell’s desire to reinstitute “shame” in America. Projectlogicga.com has several blog post that outline where we start. If a congressional candidate or social leader bought into this “nip problems in the bud” concept, we could do so much to more cleverly skin a cat. In rural Georgia, Blacks who vote became successful with the old school mindset while some non-voters sat at home with a wishbone where a backbone is supposed to be. The people who benefit most from governmental programs often don’t vote—long blink, pregnant pause, and deafening silence.

We should spend 2019 asking the people what they think about old school and new school.